For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 6, 2004
Fact Sheet: Report of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba
The objectives of United States policy towards Cuba are clear:
Bring an end to the ruthless and brutal dictatorship;
Assist the Cuban people in a transition to representative
democracy; and
Assist the Cuban people in establishing a free market economy.
To achieve these objectives, the President created the Commission
for Assistance to a Free Cuba with a mandate to identify:
Additional measures to help the Cuban people bring to an end the
dictatorship; and
Elements of a plan for agile, effective, and decisive assistance
to a post-dictatorship Cuba.
In response to the mandate to support the hastening of democratic
change in Cuba, the Commission recommended an integrated approach which pairs a more robust and effective effort to support the opposition in
Cuba with measures to limit the regime's cynical manipulation of
humanitarian policies and to undermine its survival strategies.
Immediate Actions:
Hastening the End of the Cuban Dictatorship
The President has directed that up to $59 million over the
next 2 years be committed to implementing key Commission
recommendations including:
Up to $36 million to carry out democracy-building activities,
support for the family members of the political opposition, and to
support efforts to help youth, women, and Afro-Cubans take their
rightful place in the pro-democracy movement;
Up to $18 million for regular airborne broadcasts to Cuba and
the purchase of a dedicated airborne platform for the transmission of
Radio and Television Mart into Cuba; and
Provide $5 million for public diplomacy efforts to
disseminate information abroad about U.S. foreign policy, including
Castro's record of abusing human rights, harboring terrorists,
committing espionage against other countries, fomenting subversion of
democratically-elected governments in Latin America, and other actions
which pose a threat to United States national interests.
The President has also directed that the following actions be
taken to deny resources and legitimacy to the Castro regime:
Eliminate abuses of educational travel programs through
tighter regulations;
Counter the regime's manipulation of our humanitarian
policies by:
Limiting recipients of remittances and gift parcels to immediate
family members, while denying remittances and gift parcels to certain
Cuban officials and Communist Party members;
Stepping up law enforcement and sting operations against "mule" networks and others who illegally carry money;
Limiting family visits to Cuba to one trip every three years under a specific license to visit immediate family (grandparents,
grandchildren, parents, siblings, spouses, and children) (new arrivals
from Cuba would be eligible to apply for a license 3 years after
leaving Cuba); and
Reducing the authorized per diem amount for a family visit (the
authorized amount allowed for food and lodging expenses for travel in
Cuba) from $164 per day to $50 per day (8 times a Cuban national's
likely earnings in a 14-day visit).
Neutralize Cuban government front companies by establishing a
Cuban Asset Targeting Group made up of law enforcement authorities to
investigate and identify new ways hard currency moves in and out of
Cuba;
Support and work with NGOs and other interested parties to
help Cuban citizens access the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) and to provide in-country training to help to prepare
claims for the IACHR;
Ensure that Cuban independent labor representatives are able
to engage with the International Labor Organization, and to draw
attention to exploitative labor conditions in Cuba and to assist Cuban
workers in obtaining redress; and
Target regime officials for visa denial if they (1) are or
were involved in torture or other serious human rights abuses or (2)
provided assistance to fugitives from U.S. justice.
The President has directed the establishment of a Transition
Coordinator at the State Department to facilitate expanded
implementation of pro-democracy, civil-society building, and public
diplomacy projects and to continue regular planning for future
transition assistance contingencies.
Plans to Assist a Free Cuba Transition to Democracy and a Free Market Economy:
The Commission has worked and will continue to work with
interested parties to develop recommendations to help the Cuban
people recover the lost decades of the Castro years.
These recommendations are not a prescription for Cuba's future,
but an indication of the kind of assistance the international
community should be prepared to offer a free Cuba.
These recommendations will serve as the basis for a process of
engagement with other countries, and international organizations to
ensure that they too are prepared to support a Free Cuba.
The recommendations outline how the United States could assist a
free Cuba to:
Consolidate the transition and build a strong democracy based
upon democratic institutions, the rule of law, and respect for human
rights;
Meet the basic needs of the Cuban people in the areas of
health, education, housing, and human services, while the Cuban people
sweep aside the consequences of decades of cynical decisions by the
regime to concentrate resources on sustaining the repressive apparatus;
Create the core institutions of a free economy, unleashing
the creative potential and entrepreneurial spirit of the Cuban people
which have for too long been stifled by the regime;
Modernize infrastructure so that it can support humanitarian
efforts and the growth of a modern, vibrant economy; and
Recover and safeguard its environmental assets and ensure
that they are put to use for the benefit of the Cuban people.